uTorrent freezing my computer

[Jedibugs]

So, here's the deal. I've been using uTorrent with zero problems up until today. Then, suddenly, it starts doing this:

First, my torrents will be fine. Then, it will suddenly stop downloading and give me an error. The error varies, but is usually something to do with disk access, like "Error: No such file or directory (Hash)" or "Error: No such file or directory (WriteToDisk)" or sometimes one about reconnecting a disconnected disk.

Then, if I start it or force a re-Check, it immediately finds the disk and resumes the download, no issues. At first. After a few minutes, I get the spinning beach ball of doom on uTorrent. Then it spreads until my system is totally unresponsive and requires a reboot.

This is happening no matter what I'm downloading. It started happening with 5 torrents running. I deleted all those (and the partially downloaded files for them) and re-started the torrents from scratch. Same issue. I cleared them all out and downloaded a single torrent. Same issue. I deleted all the files from the download directory. I uninstalled uTorrent and re-installed it. I tried the newest beta (1.9). Always the same. I've been trying various things for the last 7-ish hours.

I'm running the latest version of Mountain Lion, as well as, currently, the uTorrent 1.9 beta (the issue is exactly the same using the stable 1.8 release). I am downloading to an 8TB NAS that is connected via a wired Ethernet connection. I've been using this setup for about a month with zero issues. I haven't made any changes to the system or setup, either. I'm on a MacBook Pro running 8GB of RAM, if that info helps.

I'm at my wits end here, and really hoping someone can help.

Thanks,

-Shawn